Chapter 25

" Hmm? Of course I have this thing, but what do you need it for? " Ling Shengjie asked curiously.

"Hey! It's all because of that Zhou Zhiye from last time. He was taught a lesson by Senior Brother, so he didn't dare to cause trouble for Senior Brother. He also knew that I have Senior Brother's protection, so he didn't dare to bother me. Instead, he went after a brother of mine from the Floating Pagoda Cave and planted a Blood Essence Worm on him!" Lin Haoming sighed bitterly.

"Hmm? A Blood Essence Worm? That kid actually did something like this, planting a Blood Essence Worm on a fellow disciple. He's quite bold. Where is that brother of yours?" Ling Shengjie became interested when he heard about the Blood Essence Worm.

Lin Haoming immediately pointed inside and said, "He's in there!"

The two of them entered the soundproof room. Bao Wenliang, who had heard their conversation, immediately bowed respectfully and said, "Junior Brother greets Senior Brother Ling!"

"Alright, don't waste time. Show me the Blood Essence Worm on your body!" Ling Shengjie ordered.

Bao Wenliang glanced at Lin Haoming, and seeing that he didn't object, immediately pulled open his shirt.

When Ling Shengjie saw it, his eyes lit up, and he smiled, "It's almost fully formed. This worm is quite good. You're lucky to have met me today, kid!"

As he spoke, he reached out and grabbed the worm on Bao Wenliang's chest. A layer of blood light appeared on his hand, which directly penetrated through his palm into the Blood Essence Worm. Then, the worm slowly emerged from Bao Wenliang's body, and finally, a plump worm landed in Ling Shengjie's hand.

"Haha... A Blood Essence Worm willingly supplied by a cultivator is indeed different. With this worm, I can save at least a month of hard cultivation. Today is really my lucky day!" Ling Shengjie laughed heartily, then put the worm into the spirit beast bag at his waist.

A spirit beast bag is a type of spatial magical treasure similar to a storage bag. While a storage bag cannot store living creatures due to the void inside, a spirit beast bag can store spirit beasts. Although some things like spirit herbs are harder to preserve in it, the ability to keep living creatures makes it much more valuable than a storage bag. Even a low-grade spirit beast bag is worth ten times as much as a storage bag. Therefore, even inner disciples who can afford a spirit beast bag worth a few hundred spirit stones are few and far between.

Having gained the benefit, Ling Shengjie didn't stay long and left with a smile.

As soon as he left, Lin Haoming also breathed a sigh of relief.

Back in the soundproof room, Bao Wenliang applied healing medicine to his chest and immediately knelt before Lin Haoming, saying, "Senior Brother Lin, your great kindness and virtue will never be forgotten by Bao Wenliang!"

As he spoke, he slapped his chest, and a thumb-sized essence blood shot out from the wound. He then cast a spell on the essence blood, which immediately emitted an eerie light. He swore, "I, Bao Wenliang, swear to follow Senior Brother Lin Haoming. If I violate this oath, may I be struck by lightning and die a terrible death!"

After he finished speaking, the essence blood suddenly became even more radiant, but after reaching a certain level of brightness, it suddenly dimmed and quickly flew to Bao Wenliang's forehead, disappearing into it.

At the moment the blood oath was completed, Lin Haoming suddenly felt a strong reaction from the virtue bead inside his body. A powerful virtue seemed to enter the virtue bead, directly reaching the level to unseal the fourth layer of the virtue bead.

However, to Lin Haoming's surprise, the virtue bead then gave him a message: he could now choose to unseal the fourth layer of the spirit gathering bead or the first layer of the second virtue bead.

If there were no choices, Lin Haoming would have directly unsealed the spirit gathering bead. But now, he wasn't in a hurry to do so. He glanced at Bao Wenliang and quietly comforted him, "Junior Brother Bao, your cultivation has been greatly damaged. Focus on recovering first!"

"Yes!" Since Bao Wenliang had taken the blood oath, he naturally followed Lin Haoming's orders. Moreover, he had no choice but to do so; otherwise, even if he escaped today, he would still be dead once he left Lin Haoming's side.

Lin Haoming immediately returned to his stone room and took out the virtue bead.

The golden line on the spirit gathering bead was now very thick, but it hadn't fully solidified. The spirit gathering bead itself was emitting a faint golden light, as if it could be unsealed at any moment.

Lin Haoming knew that as soon as he had the thought, the seal would be immediately lifted. However, he didn't have this thought and instead fell into deep thought.

The first virtue bead was the spirit gathering bead, which, after unsealing three layers, could produce twelve low-grade spirit stones per day. Unsealing the fourth layer would likely further enhance the spirit gathering bead's effect. If he guessed correctly, it would probably increase the spirit gathering bead's capacity rather than drastically increase its ability to absorb spirit energy to the level of a high-grade spirit stone.

Since the spirit gathering bead was already sufficient for his use, instead of wasting it on accelerating the production of spirit stones, he might as well see what the second virtue bead was!

With this thought, Lin Haoming made his decision. With a mental command, he chose to unseal the first layer of the second virtue bead.

As soon as he had the thought, the golden light from the spirit gathering bead disappeared, and the second bead emitted a golden light. A golden thread then appeared on the surface of the bead, while the golden line on the spirit gathering bead became almost invisible.

At the same time as unsealing the second bead, Lin Haoming instantly received information about the second virtue bead.

The second virtue bead was called the demon gathering bead, which had the same effect as the spirit gathering bead. One gathered spirit energy, while the other gathered demon energy.

Upon receiving the demon gathering bead, Lin Haoming felt it was somewhat unworthy, as demon energy was not something he could use at his current stage. But upon further reflection, it made sense.

Everything in the world has yin and yang. Spirit energy and demon energy are the two sides of yin and yang. Since there was a spirit gathering bead, it was natural to have a demon gathering bead.

From one comes two, from two comes three, and from three comes everything. Since one virtue bead could be unsealed to three layers, it was logical to choose to unseal the next one, which aligned with the principles of the Dao.

Although the demon gathering bead was of little use to Lin Haoming at the moment, he remained very calm. In this moment, he even gained a slight understanding of the Dao, which instantly elevated his mental state far beyond that of a typical Qi Cultivation stage cultivator. The benefits of this moment of enlightenment were far greater than obtaining the demon gathering bead.

Of course, besides this, Lin Haoming also realized that the virtue gained from truly saving someone was truly immense. Based on his calculations, the virtue Bao Wenliang gave him was equivalent to the total virtue he would gain from selling goods here for three months.

Tasting this sweetness, Lin Haoming began to ponder whether he should find opportunities to save more people and gain more virtue.

But considering his current strength, Lin Haoming realized that while his aspirations were good, the gap was quite large. For him, the most important goal now was to rapidly improve his cultivation, reach the Great Perfection stage, become an inner disciple, and enter the second level of the sect.

Three days later, after Bao Wenliang's body had recovered somewhat, he became a helper in the shop. As for the original helper, Lin Haoming gave him some spirit stones and let him leave.

The helper seemed to know he would be dismissed, but when he found that the shopkeeper gave him spirit stones, he was very grateful, which earned Lin Haoming more virtue. Lin Haoming was very satisfied and told him that if he needed to buy anything in the future, he would get a 20% discount.

With Bao Wenliang's help, Lin Haoming delegated most of the tasks to him and focused on cultivation. However, he still spent three days each month going to "pick up goods" with the big boss behind the scenes.

In this way, more than half a year passed, and Lin Haoming's cultivation finally reached the ninth layer of the Qi Cultivation stage.

PS: I have something to do today, so I've finished updating. There will be another chapter tonight. Please continue to support and collect!

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